Five Date Rule
by muggleborn444
Summary: James gets creative and desperate when Lily finally goes out with him...as he learns about her "five date rule". How long can James go without that kiss?
1. Chapter 1

James was more nervous than he had ever been. _Just breathe,_ he told himself, _In and out, in and out_. He obeyed himself and exhaled loudly. A little too loudly, perhaps.

The redhead across from him looked up from where she had been timidly examining her nails and eyed him curiously. "What's the matter, James?" she asked. "Am I boring you?" It was meant to be a joke, but her voice trembled a little too much for that.

James took no notice, however, as he was too busy attempting not to hyperventilate as he stared into her startlingly green eyes that, for one of the first times ever, were showing an emotion that wasn't hatred toward him. He blinked, uncertain. Was she really and truly concerned about him? _Relax, James, _he reassured himself, _its not that far-fetched. She agreed to go on a date with you didn't she? Why would she be here if she hated you?_

He turned his attention back to her. "Oh, no, Lily. You're not boring me at all. I was just, um, breathing loudly. I'm a little bit nervous." He grinned at her. She grinned back, a good sign. They lapsed again into silence. James stared at Lily, thinking about how lucky he was that she had finally decided to give him a chance.

It had been only 5 days ago that James had stumbled into the Head Boy's bedroom, exhausted after a particularly grueling Quidditch practice, to find a note lying on his bed. On the front was his name, in loopy handwriting, obviously a girl's. James groaned. _Not another note from some random third year, _he thought. He lazily flicked it open to see who it was from…and received the shock of his life.

_Dear James, _it read,

_I know this is a little out-of-the-blue, but I would just like to inform you that, if you are still interested, I would be happy to accompany you to Hogsmeade this weekend. Come and find me in my room if you accept. If not…I understand, and don't bother telling me._

_Fondly,_

_Lily_

He had gone of course. He would have been crazy not to. James leaned back, debating on whether or not to ask about her sudden change of heart. He thought that she'd always hated him. He looked at her. "So, tell me about your dreaded sister Petunia." Lily laughed, and as she did, the tension in the room noticeably lightened. The pair was enjoying themselves immensely, trading stories and jokes.

Then, "Oh Godric!!! Curfew was an hour ago!" Lily hissed. "I need to get back. We have a Potions exam tomorrow.

James sighed, but knew she was right. "Hey. Listen, Lils, I know we aren't all lovey yet, but Sirius and I are hosting a party next Friday and… Iwonderedifyouwantedtogowithme."

"Sorry, didn't catch that last bit there." Lily said with a smirk. He gave her a sheepish look.

A smile crossed her face and she said, "Yeah, I'll go with you, now can we get back please?"

Giddy with excitement James nodded. "Yeah, let's go!"

They parted ways when they reached the Heads' common room, Lily giving James a little wave and a smile that made his heart flutter. He stared at where her retreating form had disappeared for a good minute, until the portrait hole opened and Sirius stepped in.

"Hey Prongs, how did your date with Evans go?" Sirius asked casually.

"Bloody brilliant..." James muttered, still in his trance.

"I take it you snogged her then?"

That brought James to his senses. "What? No! Lily doesn't do that. I would never…I mean, I would…I wish I could…well I…" James paused to look forlornly at Lily's door.

"Lily doesn't _snog_?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Well, not yet anyway…She has this "five date rule", and, quite frankly, she hasn't ever gotten to that point in a relationship."

Sirius snorted. "You haven't _let_ them get that far before hexing the guy into oblivion, more like."

James gave him a death glare. "None of those guys were right for her! It wouldn't have worked out anyway!"

Sirius gave him a sarcastic look, but before James could retaliate, his best friend had disappeared out of the portrait hole and was headed back to the Gryffindor common room.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okay, we are really really really sorry that this took so long, but here it is! Chapter 2 of Five Date Rule! Finally! Also, we were REALLY hyper from chocolate milk while we were writing this, so just beware. And look at the new stuff on our profile that we put up. It's somewhere near the bottom, in the inside jokes section.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter.**

"Okay, Prongs, here's the plan," Sirius whispered to James at breakfast the next morning.

"Don't listen to anything he says, James. It'll only get you into trouble." Remus stated authoritatively, although he wasn't paying full attention; he was reading an interesting article in the Daily Prophet about goblin rebellions.

"Moony doesn't know anything, Prongsie. Don't listen to him. I have the perfect plan to get Lily to snog you.

"So she won't kiss for five dates, huh? Well I don't see any way around that--" At this, James opened his mouth to protest, but was cut off by Sirius saying with a sly grin on his face, "But, I do know how to speed up the process."

"What do you mean?" James asked suspiciously.

"The definition of the word 'date' is not exactly set in stone, is it?" Sirius answered. "You could take her down to the kitchens and that could count as a date. Five of those and you're in the money!"

Remus stared at Sirius with an utterly appalled expression on his face. "What is wrong with you? Don't you think that would be considered 'taking advantage' of her? Anyway, Lily is way too smart to count those as 'dates.'" he proclaimed. "Everyone knows that all James thinks about is snogging the daylights off her face and it's her choice to decide what counts as a date and what doesn't."

The Marauders stared at Remus with disgusted expressions. "Fun SUCKER!" Sirius screamed at him in an unnaturally high voice.

It was like watching a ping-pong game. After this passionate comment, all heads swiveled to stare at Sirius. "What?" he said, trying to fight the rising blush on his cheeks.

"Let's just disregard that comment for the moment. But don't think we won't be talking later," James said with a pointed glance at his best mate.

"Back to the point! What should we do about Li--" James was suddenly silenced as Lily pranced into the Great Hall with an expression of nonchalance on her face.

"H-hi Lily! Fancy seeing you here."

"Err… not really… I'm here three times a day, just like you." Lily said with a slightly amused look on her face.

"That's not true!" said Sirius. "I come here at least five times a day!"

"What do you do here when there isn't any food?" Peter asked, genuinely curious.

"Well… It involves…girls…and me…and tables…and…" Sirius stated with a meaningful look at James, who smiled knowingly.

"May I remind you that we are eating breakfast?" Remus asked with a rather disgusted look on his face.

Lily sported the same expression. She shuddered and shook her head in an attempt to clear it of the disturbing mental image Sirius had created.

"Er… May I sit with you?" Lily asked timidly of James.

"O-Of course!" James stuttered once, in shock that Lily Evans would ever want to sit with him. _Smooth, James,_he thought as he scooted over to give her room to sit down.

Lily filled her plate and began to delicately nibble at some eggs and toast, unaware of four boys' silent conversation around her. Sirius was gesturing to James in an urgent way, trying to tell him to kiss Lily. He was making smoochy faces at James and miming running his hands up and down what would have been Lily's torso. Remus, meanwhile, was trying to dissuade James from listening, or rather _seeing_, anything that Sirius was insinuating. He was trying to tell James to talk to Lily, and making little talking mouths with his hands. James looked between them, torn.

Finally, unable to decide, he looked to Peter. After conquering the initial shock that James was pleading (albeit silently) for advice from him at all, Peter mimed putting an arm around Lily's shoulder.

James' eyes lit up as he realized that Peter had actually presented a good idea. It was a rare occurrence, but it did happen sometimes. Once in a blue moon.

Anyway, James used the old "stretching and yawning" technique and stealthily put his arm over her shoulder. (**A/N: CA just read that and put her arm around my shoulders. I don't know what to think… Maybe she's just hyper cause of the chocolate milk she's drinking and the odd animal noises she's making. I'm scared. OMG she just fell out of her chair. LOL. I'm gonna die. LOL! (CC)) **Lily seemed startled at first, but then she seemed to accept the contact and almost leaned into it. She smiled to herself and continued to eat her breakfast like normal. **(A/N: CA just tried to type "and then they shagged on the table like Sirius told them to and The End." But I told her NO. So do you have the creepy mental picture of her extreme hyperness now?? This is what happens when we try to write. Okay this whole paragraph is an Authors' Note so I think its time to stop.) **James felt relieved that she hadn't cursed him, or at least attempted to punch his face in. All in all, a successful breakfast.

**(AN: Okay we just added many funny things to our profile because we were hyper. You should read it. It will make you really happy…or really scared for our (mostly CA's) mental well being.) REVIEWWW!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!! YOU CAN HAVE CHOCOLATE MILK IF YOU DO!!!!**


	3. Chapter 3: Author's Note

A/N:

OH MY GOSH, you don't even know how sorry I am that I haven't updated Fighting Fate or Five Date Rule in FOREVER. But life has just gotten in the way. I think CA has told you that I had knee surgery on July 10. Well, let's just say that that "incapacitated" me for awhile. Actually, I'm still sort of stuck in my house. But even before that, we had the end of school, then I was at gymnastics nationals, then I went to South Africa on a school trip thing, then I had the surgery. And THEN, I was at my summerhouse for a month where I was lucky to get 5 minutes of slow Internet connection a week. I AM SORRY. So to make it up to you, I will attempt to work on the FF and FDR right now. But no guarantees…

Btw, HALF BLOOD PRINCE!!!!!!!!! GAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I don't know about everyone else, but it was *Hands Down* the best one yet. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING……… I am still in shock from that. (shivers)

So, in the meantime, while you are waiting for updates, you can read our other stories. If anyone is a MaxRide fan, CA has been writing an AWESOME story called Mistexts, which has been getting plenty of press lately. In addition we have a couple other MR stories. Just scroll down to the bottom of our profile. You can also find some HP stories there… we want reviews on the brand-new story "Black" and the lovely "Thunder", as well as everything else that's there. Also, while I'm thinking about this, I have a story for Percy Jackson and the Olympians formulating in my overcrowded brain (btw, the teaser trailer came out for that!!!) and also something for Twilight…. We shall see about those soon… so stay tuned.

Right now, CA is at diving camp and idk about her Internet, so don't really expect anything great from her for about the next three weeks…. I'll be here all month, but will be busy with physical therapy and gymnastics practices where I will only be doing conditioning. Yay.

So, to conclude: SORRY about the lack of updates, but I have good excuses. HBP was AMAZING, so tell me what you thought of it in a PM or a review or something. And expect PJO and Twilight stories sometime in the future (I'm not gonna say _near_ future, cause who knows what will happen), and definitely something for either Fighting Fate or 5 Date Rule. If you have questions or anything about Mistexts, then you can PM/review and I'll pass on the message to CA. And go read our other stories… they want reviews…

With love,

CC


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Okay. Here it is! Yay! Chapter three of Five Date Rule! **

**Disclaimer: We don't own any characters you recognize. **

**Claimer: We DO own the plot so please don't take it… :) Thanks.**

After breakfast, James realized he had forgotten his History of Magic textbook, so naturally all of the Marauders had to go up to their dorm room to retrieve it. While the boys dashed up the stairs, Lily made her way to the classroom and sat down at her customary middle-of-the-classroom table. She was taking her things out of her bag when James walked in. She looked up, startled, when James came to sit beside her, and almost dropped her inkbottle. The rest of the class had already started to fill in, and they were all giving the pair questioning glances. Lily was even more surprised when the rest of the Marauders came in and, after finding James with Lily, sat down with her as well. She must have looked wary because Remus leaned over and said, "It's okay, we don't bite." She didn't miss the elbow jab from Sirius that Remus ignored, but soon forgot about it as Professor Binns began his lecture. Halfway through the lesson, Lily was ashamed to admit that she had given up on notes, and was drifting off, when a small piece of parchment ricocheted off her head. She sat up, startled, and before James could take the note, she opened it.

**HA. Perfect Prefect Lily is ASLEEP. We should make fun of her after this!**

Sirius had scrawled. Lily shot him a dirty look, but the offending boy just shrugged and smirked. Lily then shocked all four boys when she drew out her own quill and began to write.

_Is this what you do when you are supposed to be paying attention?_

She passed it to James. He nodded and passed it to Remus who nodded and passed it to Peter who nodded and passed it to Sirius who scrawled,

**Of course! What do YOU do?**

Lily snorted when she read this, earning four pairs of raised eyebrows. She blushed and quickly wrote,

_I don't know... TAKE NOTES!?!?!_

Sirius shuddered and scratched in,

**Sacrilege! Actually, Remus has been known to take notes while talking to us...**

before passing to Lily. Lily almost shrieked in surprise and slight rage when she felt James put his hand on her kneecap, but the eyes that she turned to glare at James with soon caught the old Professor making his way over to their table. Lily quickly muttered a spell and the note disappeared in a puff of air.

After the "danger" had passed, James pulled out a spare piece of parchment. He quickly looked at Sirius, who gave him the thumbs up sign; Remus, who shook his head; and Peter who just shrugged, as usual. This mystified Lily. James scrawled something, hand covering it and form hunched over before throwing it at Lily. She unfurled it and quickly scanned the note.

_**You have Runes next, right?**_

James _would_ know her class schedule. She scribbled down a quick

_YES! _

before flicking it at James. He seemed satisfied as he read this and was soon handing the note back to Lily.

_**You. Me. Quidditch Pitch. **_

Typical James. She wrote,

_During Runes? _

He had been peeking and he nodded.

"You are breaking the note passing rules." Lily hissed.

"There are rules?" Sirius piped up, also in a whisper.

"How would you know the rules, Lily? You don't pass notes. You admitted it." James accused, also in a hushed tone.

"Just because I don't pass notes incessantly, doesn't mean I don't pass notes! AND, I'm a girl, and all girls know the note-passing rules." Lily nodded knowingly and Sirius looked impressed.

"Then what rule am I breaking, exactly?" James inquired sarcastically.

"You are not allowed to read a note while it is being written." Sirius nodded as Lily informed James of his misdeed.

"Fine." James mock scowled. And then added, "It won't happen again," as Lily glared at him.

"I'm not so sure that I should be skipping class…" Lily said uncertainly. "Besides, we don't even have an excuse!"

"Yes, we do!" James whispered triumphantly. Then he simply stated, "Head Business."

Lily seemed to mull it over before finally sighing and turning back to her note.

_Fine then. It's a date. _

She placed the paper in James' outstretched palm. He read it over and his whole face lit up. He passed it to Remus who then passed it all the way to Sirius, who jumped to his feet, pumped a fist in the air and shouted, "YES!" The whole class turned to look at him, as well as a startled Professor Binns.

"Sorry." Sirius sat and mouthed, "See! SHE'S the one who called it a DATE!" at Remus. Lily was very confused, but before she could ask, the class was getting up and shuffling out. The group hadn't even noticed Binns dismissing them.

As they were packing up, the boys were shocked once more as Lily, looking forlornly at her lack of notes, finally shrugged and tucked it away.

"You are not as uptight as I thought you were, Lily-Willy." Sirius commented as they headed out the door. She glared at him. He put up his hands.

"Sorry, sorry. I forgot you don't like that name..." He waved at Remus and Peter who turned down a different corridor. They stopped and watched incredulously, as a happy Sirius walked, clueless, behind James and Lily down the corridor. Lily tried not to laugh, because James hadn't realized Sirius was with them yet. When he finally did, they were almost at the Great Hall. James did a double take before shouting in surprise.

"PADFOOT! You can't come on our DATE!" Remus and Peter were looking down at them from the staircases, and they, along with Lily, burst into laughter at Sirius' sheepish expression and James' surprised and outraged one. Sirius grinned and then bounded up the stairs to meet Remus and Peter. They waved and then started sprinting down the empty hallways. Lily and James could hear their feet pounding away.

"They're not going to make it on time, are they?" Lily asked mildly, taking James' hand and starting to walk again.  James laughed. "Doubt it."

They talked and laughed as they wandered to the Quidditch Pitch, taking their time. Just as they left the eastern courtyard, they heard footsteps from the other side of the wall. James quickly pulled himself and Lily behind a large shrub. Now they saw the person whose footsteps they had heard. It was Professor Cortruck, the Muggle Studies teacher. He was a short, rather dumpy man with a scrunched up face that always seemed comical no matter what expression was on it, and flyaway reddish-gray hair. He must have seen the flash of robes as James and Lily had dived for the bushes. He whipped out his wand and sank into a sort of defensive crouch, and began to look in all directions.

"Who's there? Who's there? Show yourself!"

When James and Lily didn't move, Cortruck muttered to himself about hearing "the voices" and turned on his heel and quickly walked away. Lily and James burst into laughter and struggled out of the shrubbery to sprint towards the path that would take them to the Quidditch Pitch.

As they reached the pitch, Lily burst into laughter. "Did you see Professor Cortruck's face? He must have been so confused!"

James chuckled. "That _is_ the first time I have had to dive into the bushes to avoid a professor while skipping class before."

They walked out to the middle of the field and lay down on their backs, hands behind their heads. They managed to talk about everything from what they wanted to be when they grew up, (both Aurors), to their siblings (and lack thereof), to whether they liked cucumbers on their cheeseburgers. After a while, Lily rolled over and happened to glanced at her watch.

"Oh Merlin, James! We skipped Runes, Charms, AND Potions! We are going to be late to Transfiguration if we don't hurry!" Sighing, James got to his feet, pulled Lily up, and put both of their bags on his shoulders.

"I can carry that, James." Lily said reaching for her bag.

"Oh, no you don't. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you carry your own bag?" He started to walk to the other end of the pitch where they could sneak into the castle. Lily stood still, a little shocked, to say the least. Even though they were technically dating, Lily had never thought of James as her boyfriend before. James turned and shouted for her to hurry up. With the wind ruffling his hair and the carefree grin he was throwing her way, (along with her bag slung over his shoulder) Lily decided that it wasn't so bad to call James Potter her boyfriend. In fact, she quite liked it.

**A/N: OK. Go review now. You know you want to! Yay!**


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